How to Host a Minecraft Server on a VPS

The short version

1. Get a VPS with at least 4 GB of RAM running Ubuntu 24.04. Ubuntu's own repositories carry every Java version Minecraft needs.
2. Install the Java your Minecraft version requires — Java 25 for the current 26.x releases, Java 21 for 1.20.5 to 1.21.x.
3. Run the server as its own user from its own folder, never as root.
4. Open TCP port 25565 in the firewall — after allowing SSH, not before.
5. Make it a systemd service so it starts on boot and restarts after a crash, and set up backups before you need them.

That is about half an hour of work. The sections below give the exact commands, and the first one helps you decide whether a VPS is the right tool at all.

VPS or a managed Minecraft plan? The honest comparison

Both run the same Java server on similar hardware. The difference is who does the work and what else the machine can do.

For one Minecraft server, the managed plan is the better deal: more memory for less money, and no administration. A VPS earns its place when you want more than one server — a Velocity proxy in front of a lobby and a survival world, say — or other things running beside Minecraft: a Discord bot, a website, a database, your own tools. It is also the right choice if running the server is the point and you want to learn Linux along the way.

If that describes you, carry on. If you just want a server for your friends, Minecraft hosting gets you there faster.

Choosing the VPS, the operating system and the Java version

How much VPS

Leave the operating system about 1.5-2 GB, and give Minecraft the rest.

The smallest plans, with 2 GB, are fine for a bot or a test world but too tight for a real Minecraft server once the operating system has taken its share. For how memory relates to players and mods, see how much RAM a Minecraft server needs.

Which operating system

Pick Ubuntu 24.04. Its standard repositories carry OpenJDK 17, 21 and 25, which covers every Minecraft version you are likely to run. Debian 12 is a fine system too, but its repositories only offer Java 17 — too old for any Minecraft release since 1.20.5 — so you would have to add a third-party Java repository first.

Which Java version

These come straight from the version data Mojang publishes for each release. Most modpacks still target 1.21.1, so check your pack's version before installing Java.

Installing the server, step by step

Log in over SSH as a user with sudo. The commands below install Java 25 for the current release; swap in openjdk-21-jre-headless for 1.20.5-1.21.x.

1. Update the system and install Java:

   sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
   sudo apt install -y openjdk-25-jre-headless
   java -version

2. Create a user that owns the server and nothing else:

   sudo useradd -r -m -d /opt/minecraft -s /usr/sbin/nologin minecraft

   Running the server as its own user means a compromised plugin can damage the server, not the whole machine.
3. Download the server jar. Copy the download link for the vanilla server from minecraft.net, or for Paper from papermc.io, and fetch it into the server folder:

   cd /opt/minecraft
   sudo -u minecraft curl -o server.jar "PASTE_THE_DOWNLOAD_LINK_HERE"

4. Accept the EULA and start it once:

   echo "eula=true" | sudo -u minecraft tee /opt/minecraft/eula.txt
   sudo -u minecraft java -Xms2G -Xmx6G -jar server.jar nogui

   Wait for Done, type stop, and the world and server.properties are now in place. Set -Xmx to your VPS memory minus about 2 GB — -Xmx6G on an 8 GB VPS.

Firewall, auto-start and restarts

Open the port, without locking yourself out

sudo ufw allow 22/tcp
sudo ufw allow 25565/tcp
sudo ufw enable

Run it as a service

Create /etc/systemd/system/minecraft.service:

[Unit]
Description=Minecraft server
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
User=minecraft
WorkingDirectory=/opt/minecraft
ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -Xms2G -Xmx6G -jar server.jar nogui
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then load and start it:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now minecraft
journalctl -u minecraft -f

The server now starts when the VPS boots and comes back on its own if it crashes. journalctl shows its console output; sudo systemctl stop minecraft shuts it down cleanly.

Players connect to the VPS's IP address. If they cannot, check in this order: the service is running, sudo ufw status lists 25565, and server-port in server.properties is still 25565.

Backups and updates

On a VPS nobody backs up your world unless you do. Two layers work well together:

• A snapshot of the whole VPS. HytHost VPS plans offer a snapshot backup option, which captures the machine as it is — the right thing to restore after a broken system update.
• A copy of the world off the server. A snapshot lives with the VPS; a copy somewhere else survives anything that happens to it. Archive the server folder while the server is stopped, and move the archive off the machine on a schedule with cron.

Updating Minecraft is then routine: take a backup, check the Java table above for the new version, replace server.jar, start it and read the log. If a plugin or mod is not ready for the new version yet, the backup is your way back.